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My husband and I are ready to get the process going for my 3 year old daughter to be adopted by him. I need to know what kind of paperwork I need to take to court. I know that I don't necessarily need a lawyer and I want to find out more about this. I have an adoption form already, but I need to know if it is legal in Texas. I'm attaching it after my writing. I am wanting to do this asap. Can someone help?*******************
Agreement to Adopt -- Adopting Parent and Natural Parent Have Married
Agreement made on __________ (date), between __________________, herein referred to as Adopting Parent, and his wife ________________, herein referred to as Natural Parent.
Whereas, Adopting Parent desires to adopt, pursuant to law, __________________, minor child of Natural Parent, and to regard and treat the child in all respects as ____________ (his or her) natural child;
Now, therefore, for and in consideration of the mutual covenants contained in this agreement, and other good and valuable consideration, the receipt and sufficiency of which is hereby acknowledged, the parties agree as follows:
1. Adopting Parent shall and hereby does adopt ___________________, and shall treat and regard _______ (him or her) in all respects as his natural child, extending and assuring to ______ (him or her) all rights, benefits, and privileges incident to the parent-child relationship, and hereby assumes and engages to fulfill his responsibilities and duties of parent in respect to said _________________.
2. Natural Parent consents to the adoption of _______ (his or her) child ____________ and shall acquiesce therein. Natural Parent shall refrain from doing or causing to be done anything that will interfere with the rights, duties, and privileges of the child or of Adopting Parents rights, duties, and privileges pertaining to the said child, _________________.
3. The name of the child shall be changed to _____________________.
4. The following facts are affirmed by the parties:
a. The child was born on ________ (date).
b. Adopting Parent and Natural Parent were married on _______ (date), from which date Natural Parent and the child have continuously resided with Adopting Parent.
WITNESS our signatures as of the day and date first above stated.
________________________ ________________________
Signature of Adopting Parent Signature of Natural Parent
Acknowledgments (form may vary by state)
*************************
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I have no idea if your form is legal or not, but I do know that on the Texas forum, someone has been kind enough to post a link to the adoption papers that they used, follow [URL="http://forums.adoption.com/texas-step-parent-adoption-support/161473-voluntary-relinquishment-parental-rights-form.html"]THIS[/URL] link for those papers.
The documents that you will need are marriage and divorce papers from you and the biological father (if there were any) birth certificates for you, your husband, and your daughter, the marriage certificate for you and your current husband and any custody papers that you have (some states have seperate papers for divorce and custody so if you have two seperate papers bring both.
If you call your local court house you can ask if they have an adoption packet, for stepparent adoptions. Many times courts will package all of the forms and instructions together, this can be quite helpful!
A lot of counties in TX tend to want a lawyer present, and it also seems to be common place for a GAL to be used in Tx as well. Since laws vary between counties calling your local courthouse to find out what is needed of you and what you can get by without. While lawyers are expensive using them is wise and a great peace of mind during the process.
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lolli,Yes, please follow the link above. There are forms there that I posted from an adoption we did in Travis County (TX).The form you pasted above is essentially an adoption order. It is not the petition. You have to file a petition, have a home-study/social study, get criminal background checks performed, have a termination of parental rights affidavit signed and filed with the court (probably the single most important thing you need to concentrate your efforts toward), and then after all of this is done you goto court on the specified day to execute the termination of the absent biological parents rights and the subsequent adoption of the child by the adoptive parent.As was mentioned above it is common for a GAL (Guardian Ad-Litem) to be appointed in TX. They will usually do the social study/home study and criminal background checks. They will have a large packet of information to be filled out and returned. In addition you will need all of the paperwork mentioned in the above post (the GAL will request all of these items and he/she will file them with the district clerk in your county). All of that information will go along with your social report. That process will take about 2-3 months (the majority of that time waiting on background checks).If you call your district clerk they may be able to give you a lot of this information. Each county is different and they have different fee schedules. There is a fee to file a step-parent adoption. It will probably be $500 to $1000 when it is all said and done. Our county (Travis) was about $750 (this included termination fee, step-parent adoption fee, guardian ad-litem fee).Once again the biggest hurdle is usually getting the absent biological to sign the termination affidavit. If they are nowhere to be found there are other ways such as notice by publication but be aware that this can be difficult and is subject to collateral attack for up to 2 years (that means the person can come back and try to overturn the adoption if they find out during that time). You really, really, really should try to get an affidavit signed. It makes life so much simpler.Goto this [URL="http://forums.adoption.com/texas-step-parent-adoption-support/161473-voluntary-relinquishment-parental-rights-form-19.html"]LINK[/URL] to get the forms. It is on the last page about 5 posts from the bottom. These are the forms you should need.I hope this helps. Good luck !
lollipops_n_lace
My husband and I are ready to get the process going for my 3 year old daughter to be adopted by him. I need to know what kind of paperwork I need to take to court. I know that I don't necessarily need a lawyer and I want to find out more about this. I have an adoption form already, but I need to know if it is legal in Texas. I'm attaching it after my writing. I am wanting to do this asap. Can someone help?*******************
Agreement to Adopt -- Adopting Parent and Natural Parent Have Married
Agreement made on __________ (date), between __________________, herein referred to as Adopting Parent, and his wife ________________, herein referred to as Natural Parent.
Whereas, Adopting Parent desires to adopt, pursuant to law, __________________, minor child of Natural Parent, and to regard and treat the child in all respects as ____________ (his or her) natural child;
Now, therefore, for and in consideration of the mutual covenants contained in this agreement, and other good and valuable consideration, the receipt and sufficiency of which is hereby acknowledged, the parties agree as follows:
1. Adopting Parent shall and hereby does adopt ___________________, and shall treat and regard _______ (him or her) in all respects as his natural child, extending and assuring to ______ (him or her) all rights, benefits, and privileges incident to the parent-child relationship, and hereby assumes and engages to fulfill his responsibilities and duties of parent in respect to said _________________.
2. Natural Parent consents to the adoption of _______ (his or her) child ____________ and shall acquiesce therein. Natural Parent shall refrain from doing or causing to be done anything that will interfere with the rights, duties, and privileges of the child or of Adopting Parents rights, duties, and privileges pertaining to the said child, _________________.
3. The name of the child shall be changed to _____________________.
4. The following facts are affirmed by the parties:
a. The child was born on ________ (date).
b. Adopting Parent and Natural Parent were married on _______ (date), from which date Natural Parent and the child have continuously resided with Adopting Parent.
WITNESS our signatures as of the day and date first above stated.
________________________ ________________________
Signature of Adopting Parent Signature of Natural Parent
Acknowledgments (form may vary by state)
*************************